This is the final installment of Poet’s Choice for now… next week we welcome Guest Editor Lori A Minor for a new series on Social Issues:

It’s no secret that the entire world has been divided since the beginning of time, whether that be by race, class, religious beliefs, or even cliques in high school. There’s only one way that we can learn to love unconditionally and that’s through empathy and understanding. Over the month of November, I’d like to take some time to get to know one another by sharing our diverse life experiences on the theme of social issues. Everyone has specific social issues that affect them.

The importance of social awareness in haiku is not to change opinions, but to show the opinion from our own perspectives. What personal experiences have we had to make us passionate about that particular issue?

For the month of November, each poet may send one or two haiku/senryu on the week’s theme via our Contact Form.

There will be a selection process in which I will briefly comment on a few of the selected pieces.

The haiku appear in the order in which we receive them. Please note that by submitting, you agree that your work may appear in the column – neither acknowledgment nor acceptance emails will be sent.

next week’s theme:Social Issues – Basic Human Rights

We will explore basic human rights. These include, but are not limited to: freedom of religion, healthcare, the right to education, the right to work, the right to a private and family life, the right not to be mistreated or wrongly punished by the state etc. Although I have provided suggestions, I leave this as open to interpretation as I can.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. A novice haiku poet, she lives in New York City.

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019).

Comments

I have also been enjoying the doughnuts – oh! thank you simonj… also the sweet & sour of the blind date (Margie Gustafson), & the bitter-sweet chocolate:
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family dinner
dessert always includes
some bitter chocolate
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Kathleen Mazurowski
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on a diet the bittersweetness of chocolate
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Lori Zajkowski
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thanks all, kj

Thank you, Debbie, for your good words about my haiku. You can easily find recipes on Google, including one with optional chocolate chips. They would not be optional for me. I remember my mother making plain meringue cookies once when I was a child. I loved them, but she never made them again. Perhaps because an argument with my uncle broke out in the middle of things.

Big Mac Meal®
only son’s mouthful
of mother’s milk
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Mark Gilbert
UK
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Pardon the pun, but I think mark’s poem runs much deeper than the surface words.
Creating white space on white substance, you get all the tastes associated with milk.
I love the juxtaposition with the burger.
Nicely done Mark.

Never had reason to try this.
However, to be blinded of flavours due to darkness is an interesting comment on how we as humans (in the ‘first world’) treat food not so much as an essential necessity to stay alive, but as some sort of experiment to tickle our taste buds.